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Very busy at the bird feeder today! (11 Viewers)

Blackbirds and sheds!!

Fozzybear said:
Willow Warbler! Blimey!

Am sitting in the garden typing this. The blackbird is singing from the shed, more blackbirds singing around the neighbourhood. I can see Swifts flying high overhead, a Collared Dove is wandering around the garden and my two busy Robin parents are collecting food and flying back and forth to the nest. Oh, and I just had a Jay fly low over my head! Pretty cool evening!
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Hi fozzy

SNAP

<Taken a few minutes ago>

He sings his heart out from here :t:

Nice one with the Jay :t:
 

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190! Hmm, I think I get very close to that... ;)

...well, maybe not!


Still... threw down a few bits of suet pellet nearby and one of the robins has been coming down and collecting it a couple of feet away from me. Big change to earlier in the year when they'd fly off if I was looking at them through the window!
 
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Nice to have the Jay so close Fozzy, they are quite beautiful birds.

Our little Blue Tit has been wonderful to watch the past couple of days, been doing a lot of gardening and it barely bothers that i'm there. Just this morning it came and sat on the washing line while I hung the washing out. Its almost demolishing a fat ball single handedly at the moment.

The Starlings aren't shy either and we've figured there are two from the nest here and they are on the feeder for the suet pellets on and off all day.

It's beautiful to sit with the patio doors open in the sun, listening to the birdsong in a morning while we eat breakfast.
 
Bit quiet here

Our gardens are a bit quiet at the moment and our residents seem to have been less successful at breeding than usual. The Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and House Finches have at least a couple of of young but the Carolina Wrens seem to have only one (instead of the usual three). Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been scarce lately and I haven't seen any young yet. Things may have been disrupted by Hurricane Ike last September, as it killed a lot of resident birds and destroyed many trees all over southeast Texas.

Did you see the research report about Rooks choosing, using and adapting tools? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8059688.stm) Those corvids certainly are clever.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
 
Disneynut1973 said:
Nice to have the Jay so close Fozzy, they are quite beautiful birds.

Our little Blue Tit has been wonderful to watch the past couple of days, been doing a lot of gardening and it barely bothers that i'm there. Just this morning it came and sat on the washing line while I hung the washing out. Its almost demolishing a fat ball single handedly at the moment.

The Starlings aren't shy either and we've figured there are two from the nest here and they are on the feeder for the suet pellets on and off all day.

It's beautiful to sit with the patio doors open in the sun, listening to the birdsong in a morning while we eat breakfast.
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Sounds great! Yes, really cool to have a Jay fly-over - I was really jazzed about that.

Got home at lunchtime to find four starling youngsters, a couple of adults, a robin, three collared doves, a blackbird and at least 15 sparrows in the garden! At least that's what I could see from the kitchen window, there may well have been more out of sight! The place was really heaving with activity! :D
 
JeffMoh said:
Our gardens are a bit quiet at the moment and our residents seem to have been less successful at breeding than usual. The Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and House Finches have at least a couple of of young but the Carolina Wrens seem to have only one (instead of the usual three). Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been scarce lately and I haven't seen any young yet. Things may have been disrupted by Hurricane Ike last September, as it killed a lot of resident birds and destroyed many trees all over southeast Texas.

Did you see the research report about Rooks choosing, using and adapting tools? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8059688.stm) Those corvids certainly are clever.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
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I did see the beeb article it's amazing how they learn! I didn't really think about the effect the hurricane would have on the birds, I hope that the numbers start to come back up over the next couple of years.

Fozzy, the birds just know when you aren't there! That happens here too, usually just after tea when we put the little one to bed, come back down and the garden is full of birds! One of the Starling fledglings was waddling round the garden for about ten minutes earlier - it's huge and was eating anything it could pick up. There are 4 different ones now and they have just been squabbling with a Blackbird over the suet pellets, the Blackbird won.

Oh and I spoke to a colleague at work and discovered she loves to watch the birds in her garden, she has nesting Blue Tits and Blackbirds and also has a Jay that visits often too!
 
Am training up my Robins now - one of them just came and took some suet pellets from my hand! :king: Was a little wary, but did come back a while later and do it again. Patience my young Padawan, patience. ;)
 
Very nice Fozzy!

I opened my curtains this morning to 8 Starling babies, 4 adults, 8 House Sparrows,1 Female Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit & a Robin in the garden, with a Collared Dove just flying off.

I really don't envy those Starling parents their job at the moment! One of the Starling chicks was trying to eat the suet pellets, but just kept throwing them over the side of the tray.
 
I really don't know how the usually argumentative Starlings keep their cool with the kids for so long! Would drive me batty... good job I don't have kids of my own! ;)

Sounds like a nice way to start the day Pam, a garden full of birds!
 
nice clip Fozzy!

Our little Blue Tit had us laughing tonight, it was on the lawn eating seed and a cat charged at it, it missed of course and the Blue Tit sat on the fence and had a right go at and the flew right at the cat - the cat turned tail out of the garden!! Who knew it was so feisty!
 
Wow! That's amazing Pam, brilliant to hear about a little Blue Tit standing up for itself like that but I hope it doesn't get too bold and end up getting caught! :eek!:

I looked out of my kitchen window after Springwatch and found a late forager feeding on my ground feeder tray...
 

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Thanks BFB. I was worried when he was scared off by the flash so was very relieved that he came back. Don't like disturbing the wildlife if I can help it!

With the flash it looks a bit like a Devil Hog! ;)
 
Quiet here at the moment however have not been watching the garden as much as usual.

This morning we have all the usuals finches, lots of corvids, pigeons and doves, Blackbirds.

On the juvenile front we have the Robin pinching peices of nut from the feeder, Starlings still roaming the lawn and a single Dunnock

Only 1 Swift, 1 Housesparrow and a great Tit

Dave

Hoping for a more lively weekend
 
Fozzybear said:
I looked out of my kitchen window after Springwatch and found a late forager feeding on my ground feeder tray...
Click to expand...

I love the photo! I'd forgotten that hedgehogs exist. We never see them here, of course. We sometimes get a possum living under our garden shed, though. Not quite the same but ...

Jeff
 
The Starlings are as busy as ever in the garden we had ten fledglings this morning! Though we have had a casualty :-C one of the fledglings crashed into next doors window and didn't survive.

On the brighter side the Goldfinch are back on the feeders today - we think they overhead hubby saying we should take the nyjer seed down as they haven't been around for a couple of weeks. The Robin and Blue Tit are still around along with a couple of Blackbirds and several House Sparrows too. There is one Woodpigeon but we haven't seen the Collared Doves in a couple of days.

There are just a couple of Swifts around too.
 
Really noisy this morning, Magpies giving alarm calls.....:cat: found to be a cat up a tree harrassing them.
Juvenile starlings are also very active and noisy, 4 or 5 here Pam (your 10 *9) is an incredible count.
Carrion crows and jackdaws (12) in large numbers, Woodpigeons and Blackbirds are very noisy also. I dont mind this but my partner would gladly strangle some of them at 4.30am:eek!:

House sparrows still taking food to the eaves, I thought this would be a little late, hopefully the young inhabitants will emerge soon. Greenfinch early on the feeders and included are 2 juvenile greenfinch, very pretty they are too :t:, also around and about are a single Great tit and the pair of Bluetits and a Dunnock.


Hopefully a quick trip to macclesfield forest early on then I can do some gardening at some point, so only the bravest of birds will stick around today,

Dave
 
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JeffMoh said:
I love the photo! I'd forgotten that hedgehogs exist. We never see them here, of course. We sometimes get a possum living under our garden shed, though. Not quite the same but ...

Jeff
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff. Lovely to see one in the garden, I remember some used to spend the winter in my parent's old shed and we once found a nest with lots of babies in it there. Very, very cute!

My baby robins have been coming out a little, I'm occasionally see one in the rough corner or sitting in the Cotoneaster - one was sitting there this morning alongside the two parents as I filled the ground feeder tray, probably 5-6 feet from me! The garden has been packed this morning too, swamped with House Sparrows, Greenfinches, huge numbers of House Sparrows and Starlings and I've even had a Dunnock hopping around, which I've not seen for quite some time! There were rather a lot of baby Starlings, something like 13-15 of them, plus about the same again in adults! Something spooked them and all the Starlings and Sparrows took off at once and it was astonishing! I never thought I'd see so many birds in my garden! :eek!:
 
A bad day yesterday. Our neighbours (declawed) cat killed a bird under our feeders. The only good thing is that it was a White-winged Dove and not something else. Sounds heartless, I know, but if some bird had to die, I'd rather it was a White-winged than say a Blue Jay or a House Finch. We have so many White-winged Doves these days. They're more or less our equivalent of your Woodpigeons. Still, it's a shame. I keep the feeders high enough to be safe from cats but some birds always come to look for seeds on the ground under the feeders.

Jeff
 

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